PLTK - Joffre confirms it's not going forward with Playtika on 106M share purchase

Investment firm Joffre Capital confirmed it wouldn't be moving forward on a June agreement to acquire just over 106.1M shares of Playtika Holding ( NASDAQ: PLTK ), pointing to a management-heavy board as a key reason.

Joffre said that "due to certain conditions at the Company and with Playtika Holding UK II Limited (PHUKII)," it couldn't go on to pre-closing on its June 27 stock purchase agreement for 106,102,467 shares.

Joffre's co-founder and managing partner, James Fu Bin Lu, resigned from the Playtika board effective Nov. 30, and detailed issues in a letter sent to the board that day.

"As long-term investors who believe deeply in Playtika's business, we are disappointed that we are unable to move forward with our acquisition of Company stock at this time," Lu said. "We were excited about the opportunity to help Playtika capitalize on its market position and growth prospects."

"After several months of attempting to work with PHUKII, it has become clear that Joffre is not able to proceed to pre-closing outlined in the Purchase Agreement in part due to Playtika management's domination of the Board, which is directly contrary to assurances made by PHUKII prior to signing the Purchase Agreement," Lu continued.

Joffre is seeking to recover an initial payment it made to PHUKII.

Playtika noted in a filing that early in November the board appointed Bing Yuan as lead independent director.

Playtika stock ( PLTK ) is down 11.2% over the past five sessions.

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